WWF Report: Australian Economy Not Green Enough
The Australian economy may be among the worlds' most developed but as far as the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) is concerned, the country has a lot of catching up to do to achieve a respectable level of green economy.
According to the WWF report titled 'Clean Economy, Living Planet', Australia only secured the number 26 spot in a group of 40 nations that the environmental group said were observing measures that would ensure cleaner energy and technology for their respective manufacturing industries.
The country in fact has an existing framework for its economy to adhere to greener practices with the impending imposition of the fixed-pricing carbon tax in July this year, which the WWF report said could possibly lead to a clean energy technology industry over the next three years.
By the end of 2015, that global sector could be worth between $51 billion and $115 billion and Australia's participation could largely hinge on the country's political landscape at around that time, according to WWF national climate change manager Kellie Caught.
Ms Caught lauded the current Labor government's efforts to put in place environmental-friendly economic policies despite stringent opposition for the measures, mostly coming from Australia's business community and the Liberal-National coalition.
The country's carbon price, Ms Caught said, gives the national government an efficient tool that would allow the country to gradually develop a local economy that is directly parallel with sound environmental practices.
But the policies pushed by Prime Minister Julia Gillard could end too soon and even before the fundamentals of a green economy takes root in Australia, the WWF report said.
Polls have been suggesting that Ms Gillard may not be around by next year as the Coalition is touted to sweep Labor out of power in the general elections scheduled next year.
Headed by Opposition Leader Tony Abbott, the Coalition vowed to repeal the laws supporting the implementation of carbon pricing, a spectre that the WWF reads as a step backward for Australia in terms of its green economy policies.
At the moment, the country is too far below in the WWF ranking and its efforts of moving up could be greatly arrested by the looming policy reversals that the Coalition Government said will be its first order of business.
Ms Caught said that sentiments coming from Australia's business and future political leaders were indeed worrisome.
"What we're hearing from industry and business is they're hesitating (on the carbon tax) ... and the coalition saying they'll repeal the carbon price," the WWF country official said.
Nonetheless, she remains hopeful that Australia will further ramp up the integration of green policies on its economic settings en route to the creation of a a clean energy technology industry.
"If you look at the developed countries ... the reason they've done so well is because they developed a domestic industry that provided the foundation for the manufacturing base to grow," Ms Caught was reported by the Australian Associated Press (AAP) as saying.
She suggested too that Canberra will do well to follow the examples of its biggest trading partners in order to improve on its ranking in the years ahead.
China, the United States, South Korea and Germany - all of which heavily engaged in trade exchanges with Australia - were ranked by the WWF as the top performers in developing greener economies.